As refreshing and thrilling as the day it was written, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! is the original feel-good musical. From the minute the rugged cowboy Curly steps on to the stage singing Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ we know that all will be right with the world. This colourful production overflows with well-known songs such as I Cain’t Say No, The Surrey With the Fringe on Top, Kansas City, People Will Say We’re in Love and, of course, the rousing title song itself! Read more …
Celebrating the vigour of America’s pioneering spirit with classic tunes and boot-stomping dances, we follow Curly and the girl of his dreams, Laurey, as they travel down love’s highway on an extremely bumpy surrey ride.
The pace may falter a little in the first act – something that's easily fixable on the road – but the crowd's enthusiasm for the uplifting show they were given quite rightly reflected the quality of the goods.
A satisfying night of nostalgia, with theatre sets that combined with choreography, costumes and lighting add up to a quality production.
This is a time-honoured piece of musical theatre history and a slice of old-fashioned charm. You will come out of the theatre humming show tunes that you did not even realise you knew.
Francis O’Connor’s cluttered set somewhat belies the wide open spaces and dwarfs the Festival Theatre’s huge stage but there’s plenty of heart in director Rachel Kavanaugh’s production (the famous Agnes de Mille dream ballet sequence is worth the ticket price alone).
While choreographer Drew McOnie's end of Act One Dream Ballet is worth the ticket price alone, Stephen Ridley's ten-piece band navigate all this with a winning ebullience that suggests a brave new world for all is just beyond the horizon.
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday April 21, 2015, until Saturday April 25, 2015. More info: http://www.edtheatres.com/festival
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